April 15, 2010
Etc.: Campus news & notes
COMPUTING CHAMPION: The Association for Computing Machinery has given Ed Lazowska, who holds the Bill & Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science & Engineering, its Distinguished Service award, recognizing his “wide-ranging service to the computing community and his longstanding advocacy for this community at the national level.”
Lazowska served as co-chair of the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee, where he championed the importance of computing in achieving federal priorities. He served for six years on the National Research Council’s Computer Science and Telecommunications Board and made major contributions to studies involving the information technology innovation ecosystem; the role of information technology in improving learning and countering terrorism; and the management of university intellectual property.
Lazowska also chaired the Board of Directors of the Computing Research Association, the National Science Foundation’s Computer and Information Science & Engineering Advisory Committee, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Information Science and Technology Study Group. Recently, he was instrumental in creating and chairing the Computing Community Council, an NSF-sponsored effort to engage the computing research community in envisioning more audacious research challenges.
The Association for Computing Machinery is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting computing educators, researchers and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources and address the field’s challenges.
GARRISON & GEODUCKS: Thanks to connections within the national network of Sea Grant programs, Washington Sea Grant Marine Water Quality Specialist Jeff Adams made an appearance earlier this month on National Public Radio’s popular A Prairie Home Companion.
Host Garrison Keillor called Adams on Thursday, April 1, to invite him to appear on the show just two days later. The show was broadcast live from Seattle’s Paramount Theater Saturday afternoon, April 3.
Keillor introduced Adams as a local “naturalist” with the UW’s Washington Sea Grant program, and the two engaged in an entertaining discussion about local marine life, including orcas (killer whales), octopi and geoducks. Adams displayed a live geoduck, which drew loud applause from the Seattle audience. Of the world’s largest burrowing clam, Keillor remarked, “I’ve never seen anything like it, and I’m not sure I want to eat it.”
On Adams’ observation that the octopus is perhaps nature’s “smartest invertebrate,” Keillor noted that “it doesn’t have a lot of competition.”
The Seattle show is available on the Web site of A Prairie Home Companion. Adams appears about halfway through Segment 3 of the show.
Do you know someone who deserves kudos for an outstanding achievement, award, appointment or book publication? If so, send that person’s name, title and achievement to uweek@u.washington.edu.
